Ask HN: How do I crawl out of the "Senior Engineer" hole?

Re:Ask HN: How do I crawl out of the "Senior Engineer" hole? by throwaway_boy on Monday November 15, 2010 @04:49PM (#1908005)

You're right that more initiative will be required of me. In hindsight there were times when there was a vacuum and I could have done something (ultimately the vacuum always stayed there; noone stepped up as it would happen.) Lesson learned. Right now my company is extremely small and utterly flat (it's basically CO's and non-CO's), so there's no room to lead anything. This is really more about whatever I do next.

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Re:Ask HN: How do I crawl out of the "Senior Engineer" hole? by jbl on Tuesday November 16, 2010 @08:53AM (#1910035)

This is the same situation I'm in, except that I'm at the beginning of my career as a developer (despite being 30+... took a detour through grad school). I feel like it's hard to know what's up, down, left, or right at a small company or startup.

For the most part, I get my projects done, start my own in areas where I know there is pain, and advocate for other projects/solutions when I think they're applicable but I'm too swamped with my own work.

It's an issue I've been meaning to bring up with my supervisor ("So just how do I fit in? What's next?"). Is a frank discussion with your CTO out of the question?

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Re:Ask HN: How do I crawl out of the "Senior Engineer" hole? by brc on Monday November 15, 2010 @08:09PM (#1908641)

That terminology sounds almost military. Is that in your past? Because you'll have to throw out the services mindset where there is both a structured path upwards and a structured chain of command. Those things are great for organising massive amounts of people towards difficult goals, but that's not necessarily the right fit for software development.

To me most of the boxing in is done in your own mind. In my last corporate job I was a team lead who never touched the code. I was supposed to go though my manager for stuff, but he was the problem. I learnt to go straight to the CEO - most of the time the 'open door policy' isn't just lip service.

Many people face the problem in their careers that they think there is a stuctured hierarchy where you can't jump levels for problem solving, initiative or anything like that. So do stuff like that. Your job is really to make the company run as well as possible, whether that is coding or leading changes that need to be made. Staying in your box really means staying in a box that someone else has designed for you, and being successful means spreading your influence by whatever means. Just don't be an a-hole and treat everyone with respect, even those who disagree with you.

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Re:Ask HN: How do I crawl out of the "Senior Engineer" hole? by throwaway_boy on Monday November 15, 2010 @08:39PM (#1908726)

I actually wrote C-asterisk-O's and non-C-asterisk-O's, as in wildcards of CEO/COO/CTO/CFO, but HN seemed to parse my markdown and I didn't notice. Whoops. :) No military past in my background.

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